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The pseudogap state is one of the most enigmatic characteristics in the anomalous normal state properties of the high temperature cuprate superconductors. A central issue is to reveal whether there is a symmetry breaking and which symmetries are broken across the pseudogap transition. By performing high resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements on the optimally-doped Bi2Sr1.6La0.4CuO6+δ superconductor, we report the observations of the particle–hole symmetry conservation in both the superconducting state and the pseudogap state along the entire Fermi surface. These results provide key insights in understanding the nature of the pseudogap and its relation with high temperature superconductivity.

Single-layer FeSe films grown on the SrTiO3 substrate (FeSe/STO) have attracted much attention because of their possible record-high superconducting critical temperature Tc and distinct electronic structures in iron-based superconductors. However, it has been under debate on how high its Tc can really reach due to the inconsistency of the results obtained from the transport, magnetic and spectroscopic measurements. Here we report spectroscopic evidence of superconductivity pairing at 83 K in single-layer FeSe/STO films. By preparing high-quality single-layer FeSe/STO films, we observe for the first time strong superconductivity-induced Bogoliubov back-bending bands that extend to rather high binding energy ~100 meV by high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements. The Bogoliubov back-bending band provides a new definitive benchmark of superconductivity pairing that is directly observed up to 83 K in the single-layer FeSe/STO films. Moreover, we find that the superconductivity pairing state can be further divided into two temperature regions of 64-83 K and below 64 K. We propose the 64-83 K region may be attributed to superconductivity fluctuation while the region below 64 K corresponds to the realization of long-range superconducting phase coherence. These results indicate that either Tc as high as 83 K is achievable in iron-based superconductors, or there is a pseudogap formation from superconductivity fluctuation in single-layer FeSe/STO films.

Urban vitality is a spatial phenomenon and a public service. Previous studies often did not measure the fairness of the accessibility of urban vitality. This research analyzed the spatial distribution of urban vitality in Wuhan as a case study area using big data from multiple sources. The study used the two-step floating catchment area method (2SFCA) to measure the accessibility level of each residential district to the vibrant zones (VZs). Furthermore, the inequality in the level of accessibility of residential areas with different housing prices was assessed on the basis of the Gini coefficient. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) the Gini coefficient of reaching the accessibility level of high-grade VZs is 0.426, and the corresponding sub-high-grade Gini coefficient is 0.274. This shows that the inequality in accessibility of different residential areas is more obvious as the level of vitality is higher and (2) residential areas with high housing prices have greater accessibility than those areas with low housing prices. It was also noticed that the level of accessibility and fairness in vitality is generally higher in central urban areas than in suburban areas. The Gini coefficient of high-grade vitality is generally higher than that of sub-high-grade. The results of this study provide a reference for researching the accessibility level of urban vitality, which considers the needs of population, and can also provide guidelines in urban planning regarding the allocation of services and resources.

Urban wastewater contains large amounts of waste heat and the wastewater source heat pump (WWSHP) offers an effective way to use this heat. Increasing the overall heat transfer coefficient (OHTC) of the evaporator is an effective mean to improve the performance of the heat pump. In this work, falling film evaporator(FFE) is used in direct WWSHP. A WWSHP unit that can switch evaporators is first established. The effects of practical application of this WWSHP are then tested and compared with simulation results. Under the test conditions, the average OHTC of the wastewater FFE (WFFE) reaches 1960.90 W m−2 K−1, while the average OHTC of a wastewater flooded evaporator (WFE) 1224.28 W m−2 K−1. The average OHTC of the WFFE was thus 60.17% higher than that of the WFE and COP of the WFFE is 9.52% higher than that of the WFE. The experiment also explores the wastewater backwash, which can ensure stable operation of the unit. When using the backwash mode, the backwash time interval was set to be as short as possible to ensure that the average OHTC would not decrease. A mathematical model of the OHTC of the WFFE is presented. Using the wastewater condition as a basis, the mathematical model is used to synthetically calculate the shell side HTC of the WFFE, the convection HTC of the wastewater and the heat resistance of the tube walls and the fouling. From the experimental results, an influence factor for the wastewater down-and-up mode is proposed to revise the formula.

The discharge of wastewater containing hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) into the environment is very harmful to living things. Therefore, before effluent that contains Cr(VI) can be discharged into the environment, this toxin should be removed from the contaminated water. In this study, corn stalk biochar was investigated to evaluate the Cr(VI) removal efficiency from an aqueous solution. The effects of pH (2–10), biochar concentration (0.5 to 10 g/L), Cr(VI) concentration (10–500 mg/L), and contact time (10–1440 min) were studied. The actual experimental value of the Cr(VI) removal efficiency was 28.67%, largely consistent with the predicted model value of 29.31%, under the optimal conditions of a Cr(VI) concentration of 60 g/L, pH 4, contact time of 270 min, and a biochar concentration of 4.5 g/L. A significant interaction between the Cr(VI) concentration and pH was observed, along with significance in the interaction between Cr(VI) concentration and biochar concentration, which had a greater impact on the removal of Cr(VI). Biosorption onto corn stalk biochar is an affordable and economical adsorption process to treat wastewater contaminated with Cr(VI). The aim of this study is to provide data to serve as a basis for future studies on the use of raw agricultural waste to remove Cr(VI).

Intelligent skinlike materials have recently attracted tremendous research interests for employing in electronic skin, soft robotics, and wearable devices. Because the traditional soft matters are ...

The synergetic development of urban and rural construction land is always an important issue. We propose a collaborative optimization model (COMRU) of rural residential land consolidation and urban construction land expansion, which is a coupling model of cellular automata (CA), genetic algorithms (GA), and the Lewis turning point theory. This model regards the rural population transfer as a scenario and generates a new quantity and space allocation system for the population and the land-use types in the study area. The optimized result will balance the development of urban and rural construction lands to ultimately reduce the income gap between urban and rural areas and promote the rationality of the spatial distribution of urban and rural construction lands. We applied COMRU to Huangpi District in the city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, People's Republic of China and obtained three important results: (1) After optimization, the scattered rural settlements were effectively consolidated and large amounts of land resources were released, thereby supplementing cultivated and urban construction lands; (2) The urban–rural income ratio decreased significantly, indicating a considerable reduction in the income gap between the urban and rural areas; (3) The structure and function of the construction lands were improved, leading to the improved equity of urban and rural public services. The final space optimization allocation program generated by COMRU provides a reference for the sequence of rural settlement consolidation and urban spatial planning.

The emergence of geographical ‘big data’ provides new opportunities for studying urban issues. This study uses geographical ‘big data’ on point of interest density (POID), degree of urban function mixing (MIX), location check-in density (CIQD), housing prices (HP), and population change (POPC) to measure the urban vitality of patches of new development that occurred in Chinese cities from 2005 to 2015. The study uses association rule analysis to explore the relationship between different urban growth patterns on urban vitality, and the results indicate that different forms of urban growth have different effects on urban vitality. Infilling is characterized by high values for point of interest density and location check-in density with low values for urban function mixing and mixed values for population change. Edge-expansion is associated with high values for population change and urban function mixtures. Outlying expansion is associated with several negative values for urban vitality, particularly variables related to interactions between people and the environment around them (CIQD). The results indicate that cities may utilize these different forms of urban growth patterns to achieve different goals; for example, infilling may be more effective for office-style development in areas with existing higher population density and urban function mixtures, and edge-expansion may be effective for rapidly absorbing large populations and hosting urban functions that require larger footprints. As such, Chinese cities currently undergoing early stages of development should pursue high-intensity edge-expansion development. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the relationship between urban expansion types and urban vitality through the use of ‘big data,’ and the results of this study can provide guidance on urban spatial development for government leaders and researchers in the future.

Magnetic topological materials have attracted much attention due to the correlation between topology and magnetism. Recent studies suggest that EuCd2As2 is an antiferromagnetic topological material. Here by carrying out thorough magnetic, electrical and thermodynamic property measurements, we discover a long-time relaxation of the magnetic susceptibility in EuCd2As2. The (001) in-plane magnetic susceptibility at 5 K is found to continuously increase up to ∼10% over the time of ∼14 hours. The magnetic relaxation is anisotropic and strongly depends on the temperature and the applied magnetic field. These results will stimulate further theoretical and experimental studies to understand the origin of the relaxation process and its effect on the electronic structure and physical properties of the magnetic topological materials.

Single-layer FeSe films grown on the SrTiO3 substrate (FeSe/STO) have attracted much attention because of their possible record-high superconducting critical temperature (Tc) and distinct electronic structures. However, it has been under debate on how high its Tc can really reach due to the inconsistency of the results from different measurements. Here we report spectroscopic evidence of superconductivity pairing at 83 K in single-layer FeSe/STO films. By preparing high-quality single-layer FeSe/STO films, we observe strong superconductivity-induced Bogoliubov back-bending bands that extend to rather high binding energy ~ 100 meV by high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements. They provide a new definitive benchmark of superconductivity pairing that is directly observed up to 83 K. Moreover, we find that the pairing state can be further divided into two temperature regions. These results indicate that either Tc as high as 83 K is achievable, or there is a pseudogap formation from superconductivity fluctuation in single-layer FeSe/STO films., How high the superconducting transition temperature can reach in single layer FeSe/SrTiO3 films has been under debate. Here, the authors use Bogoliubov back-bending bands as a benchmark and demonstrate that superconductivity pairing can be realized up to 83 K in this system.

The iron-based superconductor FeSe has attracted much recent attention because of its simple crystal structure, distinct electronic structure, and rich physics exhibited by itself and its derivatives. Determination of its intrinsic electronic structure is crucial to understanding its physical properties and superconductivity mechanism. Both theoretical and experimental studies so far have provided a picture that FeSe consists of one holelike Fermi surface around the Brillouin zone center in its nematic state. Here we report direct observation of two holelike Fermi surface sheets around the Brillouin zone center, and the splitting of the associated bands, in the nematic state of FeSe by taking high-resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements. These results indicate that, in addition to nematic order and spin-orbit coupling, there is an additional order in FeSe that breaks either inversion or time-reversal symmetries. The new Fermi surface topology asks for reexamination of the existing theoretical and experimental understanding of FeSe and stimulates further efforts to identify the origin of the hidden order in its nematic state.

High temperature superconductivity in cuprates is realized by doping the Mott insulator with charge carriers. A central issue is how such an insulating state can evolve into a conducting or superconducting state when charge carriers are introduced. Here, by in situ vacuum annealing and Rb deposition on the Bi2Sr2Ca0.6Dy0.4Cu2O8+delta (Bi2212) sample surface to push its doping level continuously from deeply underdoped (Tc=25 K, doping level p-0.066) to the near zero doping parent Mott insulator, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements are carried out to observe the detailed electronic structure evolution in lightly hole-doped region for the first time. Our results indicate that the chemical potential lies at about 1 eV above the charge transfer band for the parent state at zero doping which is quite close to the upper Hubbard band. With increasing hole doping, the chemical potential moves continuously towards the charge transfer band and the band structure evolution exhibits a rigid band shift-like behavior. When the chemical potential approaches the charge transfer band at a doping level of -0.05, the nodal spectral weight near the Fermi level increases, followed by the emergence of the coherent quasiparticle peak and the insulator-superconductor transition. Our observations provide key insights in understanding the insulator-superconductor transition in doping the parent cuprate compound and for establishing related theories., 17 pages, 5 figures

In high temperature cuprate superconductors, the interlayer coupling between the CuO$_2$ planes plays an important role in dictating superconductivity, as indicated by the sensitive dependence of the critical temperature (T$_C$) on the number of CuO$_2$ planes in one structural unit. In Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ superconductor with two CuO$_2$ planes in one structural unit, the interaction between the two CuO$_2$ planes gives rise to band splitting into two Fermi surface sheets (bilayer splitting) that have distinct superconducting gap. The iron based superconductors are composed of stacking of the FeAs/FeSe layers; whether the interlayer coupling can cause similar band splitting and its effect on superconductivity remain unclear. Here we report high resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements on a newly discovered iron based superconductor, KCa$_2$Fe$_4$As$_4$F$_2$ (T$_C$=33.5\,K) which consists of stacking FeAs blocks with two FeAs layers separated by insulating Ca$_2$F$_2$ blocks. Bilayer splitting effect is observed for the first time that gives rise to totally five hole-like Fermi surface sheets around the Brilliouin zone center. Band structure calculations reproduce the observed bilayer splitting by identifying interlayer interorbital interaction between the two FeAs layers within one FeAs block. All the hole-like pockets around the zone center exhibit Fermi surface-dependent and nodeless superconducting gap. The gap functions with short-range antiferromagetic fluctuations are proposed and the gap symmetry can be well understood when the interlayer pairing is considered. The particularly strong interlayer pairing is observed for one of the bands. Our observations provide key information on the interlayer coupling and interlayer pairing in understanding superconductivity in iron based superconductors.

Due to the close links between quality of life standards and level of regional development, it is important to gain an improved understanding of the factors that contribute to unequal spatial accessibility of medical and health services in China. This study analyzed 2859 counties using the average shortest distance traveled from settlements to medical facilities to calculate spatial accessibility. The Theil index at three levels (three partitions, eight economic zones and provinces) was used to assess the inequality between regions. Then, a method of spatial autocorrelation was used to assess the spatial agglomeration characteristics of spatial accessibility. To explore the underlying reasons for the imbalance in spatial accessibility, a total of eight indicators in three aspects (nature, society, and economy) were collected and geographically weighted regression (GWR) was employed to investigate spatial heterogeneity. We observed marked disparities in spatial accessibility to medical facilities at the national level. In particular, there appears to be improved spatial accessibility and lesser regional inequality in eastern and central regions as opposed to western Chinese regions; in coastal regions instead of inland regions; and in municipalities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, but not in other provinces and autonomous regions. Besides, significant global autocorrelation and obvious clusters were revealed in a spatial pattern analysis. A wide range of hot-spot areas (clusters of poor spatial accessibility) mainly concentrated in Tibet and other areas with complex terrain and lagging social and economic development. A number of cold-spot areas (clusters of good spatial accessibility) mostly scattered in built-up areas especially municipalities and well-developed urban agglomeration such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Wuhan 1 + 8 city circle. Furthermore, the relationships between influencing factors and spatial accessibility were also investigated. The influence of altitude on spatial accessibility gradually decreased from the West to the East, while the influence of slope decreased from the South to the North with prominent provinces of Qinghai and Gansu. Population density exerted a higher impact on the distance in the southwest region whereas the urbanization rate influenced the northeast and southeast coastal region more intensively. In contrast, the pattern of educational level was relatively discrete. The influencing pattern of economic factors in both per area GDP and tertiary industry output share of accessibility showed apparent regional characteristics in the southeast coastal areas, as well as in the northwestern and northeastern parts. Outcomes from this study can be used to provide important information to aid policy making, while also facilitating future research aimed at improving the understanding of equality and sustainable development of medical facilities.

The sewage flow rate of the urban drainage system is relatively large and generally stable, its sewage temperature range varies relatively lightly and maintains 10~15℃ in winter. The sewage in the drainage system can be the low grade thermal source for building heating and cooling. Sewage source heat pump technology can efficiently extract or discharge the amount of heat from the sewage in the drainage system for building heating or cooling. The field test of the actual operation thermal performance of the sewage source heat pump were carried out and investigated. The sewage source heat pump system were continuously measured for 72 hours. Based on the test datum, the average COP of the heat pump was 4.5. The relationship between energy consumption of system and energy consumption of transportation are analyzed. The analysis shows that the pump of this system cannot match the load change well and the use of variable frequency pump can improve the energy efficiency of the system. Before the use of the sewage source heat pump system, the traditional coal-fired boiler and air-cooled chiller are the heating and cooling system of this building. Compared with the traditional coal-fired boiler and air-cooled chiller, the advantages of sewage source heat pump system in energy saving, economy and environmental protection are analyzed. The results show that: Compared with the original system, direct heat exchange type sewage source heat pump system can save 53% of the primary energy consumption, reduce the annual operating cost by 11%, increase the initial investment by a factor of 14.3%, and the payback period of incremental investment is about 4.7 years. This method not only has better energy saving, saving capital benefit, but also can reduce the local pollutant emission, and has better environmental emission reduction benefits.

There are a large amount of low-grade waste thermal energy in the sewage and abundant organic substances in the sludge. By making full use of the energy in these resources, which can complement or offset the energy consumed in the sewage treatment process, the sewage treatment plants can significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide indirect emissions. The goal of “carbon neutrality” in the sewage treatment plant can be achieved. The sewage source heat pump using sewage thermal energy can supply cooling and heating in the buildings; The sludge anaerobic digestion process can produce a lot of biogas for generating electricity; The photovoltaic power generation modules can compensate the heat and the electric consumption of the sewage treatment plant. Comparing and analyzing the differences of three technologies in aspects of energy saving, economic feasibility and carbon neutral, the research result shows that the best treatment method is the SSHP technology, which have energy saving potential by using low-grade waste thermal energy and is contributed to achieve “carbon neutrality” of the sewage treatment plant.

Urban development can occur through diffusion (sprawl) or coalescence. This paper selects all 363 prefecture-level or higher level cities in China and detects their dynamic change of urban growth pattern in 1995–2005 and 2005–2015. Three main findings can be obtained: (1) In two periods, the vast majority of Chinese cities are expanding by the way of edge-expansion.(2) Cities in the western region tend to be most likely to grow through dispersion (64.71%), with smaller percentages of cities in the eastern region (46.08%) and the central region (43.20%) growing through dispersion; (3) During the two stages of urban development, the achievement of controlling urban sprawl is mainly in the city with high economic development level. (4) Xinyu City, Nujiang City, Guangyuan City etc., a total of 20 individual cities are the key cities where urban sprawl is occurring, besides, the junction of Gansu Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the northwest China and the junction of northern part of Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province in the east China are the key regions of urban diffusional sprawl, The result of this paper could provide reference to China’s urban master planning in the future.

The conventional wisdom that compact city fosters quality of place (QoP) has been contested in the literature, leaving the nexus between urban expansion and QoP something of a black-box. This paper investigates the magnitude of additional QoP achievements derived from increasing compactness for 362 Chinese cities. We propose that an expansion consists of a fundamental part (FLE) in consistency with fundamental factors such as demographic, economic and technical changes and a transitory part (TLE) mainly driven by policy shocks, while these two parts would affect QoP heterogeneously. We find that compact FLE has positive effects on QoP, which, however, may be attenuated by TLE. We also discern that positive effects of compactness on QoP are most pronounced in cities located in economically backward areas of the west; and only cities in this region have QoP positively related to compact TLE, indicating that even policy shocks could improve QoP here as long as they are promoting compactness. This research has theoretical contributions and implications for China’s urban polies that a move from sweeping directives on urban expansion to connecting with fundamental changes is more effective in fostering QoP.

Spatial patterns of urban expansion mainly include infilling, edge expansion, and outlying growth patterns. The cellular automata (CA) model, is an important spatio-temporal dynamic model and effectively simulates infilling and edge-expansion urban expansion. but is evidently lacking in outlying scenarios. In addition, CA cannot explain the causes and processes of urban land expansion. Given these limitations, we proposed a novel urban expansion model called simulation model of different urban growth pattern (SMDUGP), which can work well in both adjacent (i.e., infilling and edge expansion) and outlying growth patterns. SMDUGP has two main components. First, we divided the non-urban region into two categories, namely, candidate region for adjacent pattern urban growth (CRFAP) and candidate region for outlying pattern urban growth (CRFOP). Second, different methods were utilized to simulate urban expansion in the different categories. In CRFAP, a CA model based on the potential of urban growth was proposed to simulate urban growth in relatively randomly selected urban growth regions based on the discrete selection model and Monte Carlo method as the expansion area was implemented in CRFOP. Huangpi, a suburban area in Wuhan, is utilized as the case study area to simulate the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban growth from 2004 to 2024. SMDUGP can effectively simulate outlying urban growth with a highly improved simulation precision compared with the traditional CA model and can explain the causes and processes of urban land expansion.

Finding ways to identify the coupled relationship between changes in the quantity and quality of ecologically functional land (EFL) is essential for sustainable ecosystem management. However, this coupled relationship has been ignored in the literature. This paper proposes a quality-based quantity (QBQ) method to evaluate the spatiotemporal change in EFL in China. Three Landsat images spanning 20 years were used to investigate the gains and losses of EFL. We compared the differences and linkages between the net change and QBQ change of EFL at the county scale. Continuous EFL loss and growing fragmentation were observed in China. From 1995 to 2015, the main cause of EFL loss was desertification, followed by farmland occupation and construction land consolidation. It should be noted that the EFL loss from 2005 to 2015 was much higher than that from 1995 to 2005. The main gain in EFL was from desert land exploitation, followed by farmland return and construction land consolidation. In particular, grassland degradation was the most severe ecological problem in western China. The QBQ change in EFL showed a more severe situation than did the quantity change. The dynamic processes associated with quantity change and their effects on landscape were well reflected in the QBQ change. These results indicated that the EFL degraded in both quantity and quality in China between 1995 and 2015. EFL conservation policies should focus not only on the dynamic losses and gains in quantity but also on the changes in quality linked to landscape patterns.

Noise pollution poses negative impacts on public health particularly for urban dwellers as the land use of cities is prone to producing more road traffic and various human activities. Among the existing literature, the pathways linking built environment characteristics and noise level are not sufficiently addressed owing to a variety of complex factors affecting noise in urban areas. This study aims to examine the relationships of urban built environment and noise, using Pearson correlations and multiple linear regressions. Built environmental factors considered for this study consist of land cover, land use, and urban form. Results reveal a significant association between three aspects of urban built environment and noise level. In terms of land cover, forest alleviates noise effectively, while the effect of grassland on noise is far less impactful than forest. High-density and high-rise building areas (HHBA) are two contributors to noise pollution. The spatial layout of residential buildings is more effective in reducing noise level, as compared to the size of the residential lands. In terms of land use, the area proportion of business, open space with hard pavement, industrial, and residential land uses positively influence noise level. In terms of urban form, controlling building density is a key measure in noise reduction. Buildings with larger site coverage and complex shapes are effective in noise reduction. Findings from this study would be very helpful to formulate and implement effective measures for noise pollution mitigation, and ensure sustainable development of urban environment.

Investigating the relationship between road centrality and urban landscape patterns is important for transport planning and land management. A multiple centrality assessment (MCA) model is ...

The urban heat island (UHI) effect is becoming more of a concern with the accelerated process of urbanization. However, few studies have examined the effect of urban form on land surface temperature (LST) especially from an urban planning perspective. This paper used spatial regression model to investigate the effects of both land use composition and urban form on LST in Wuhan City, China, based on the regulatory planning management unit. Landsat ETM+ image data was used to estimate LST. Land use composition was calculated by impervious surface area proportion, vegetated area proportion, and water proportion, while urban form indicators included sky view factor (SVF), building density, and floor area ratio (FAR). We first tested for spatial autocorrelation of urban LST, which confirmed that a traditional regression method would be invalid. A spatial error model (SEM) was chosen because its parameters were better than a spatial lag model (SLM). The results showed that urban form metrics should be the focus for mitigation efforts of UHI effects. In addition, analysis of the relationship between urban form and UHI effect based on the regulatory planning management unit was helpful for promoting corresponding UHI effect mitigation rules in practice. Finally, the spatial regression model was recommended to be an appropriate method for dealing with problems related to the urban thermal environment. Results suggested that the impact of urbanization on the UHI effect can be mitigated not only by balancing various land use types, but also by optimizing urban form, which is even more effective. This research expands the scientific understanding of effects of urban form on UHI by explicitly analyzing indicators closely related to urban detailed planning at the level of regulatory planning management unit. In addition, it may provide important insights and effective regulation measures for urban planners to mitigate future UHI effects.

Ecological-living-production land (ELPL) is gaining an increasing attention of governors, planners and scholars to alleviate ecological deterioration on the premise of ensuring regional sustainable development in China. This paper has built an ecological-living-production land classification system (ELCS) by the reclassification method, and further analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics and evolution mechanism of ELPL from 2009 to 2014 with a case study of Hubei Province of Central China. The results show that (1) land with an ecological function held a dominant role in Hubei Province. Ecological land (EL) and production-eco land (PEL) covered the largest areas. The area of EL was the largest in Western Hubei Eco-cultural Tourism Circle (WHETC), and the area of PEL accounted for the largest proportion in Wuhan Urban Circle (WUC). (2) Land with an ecological function was decreasing continuously, while the land with living function expanded rapidly. Additionally, the intensity of ELPL changes in the WUC was higher than that in the WHETC. (3) The changes of ELPL threatened the food and ecological security and adversely affected the sustainable development. The factors of population growth and GDP increase were the main driving forces of ELPL change. The results of this study provide valuable information for planning decision makings (e.g., the ELPL spatial pattern optimization).

Diabetes mellitus affects 347 million people worldwide, and over 80 % of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is characterized by the attacks of the body's own immune system on the pancreatic β-cells. In this work, we present a new CTLA-4 Ig targeting at the surface of β-cell and prepare it from Escherichia coli aiming at clearing activated T cells around β-cells and avoiding all-round decline in systematic immunity. This fusion protein is composed of CTLA-4-Ig part and β-cell-targeting part, with properties of the therapeutic effect of CTLA-4-Ig and selective binding to β-cells. In preliminary biological activity assay, our results verified the feasibility of β-cell-targeting strategy and its activity of CTLA-4-Ig part. The fusion protein recognizes and binds specifically to CD80(+) and CD86(+) cells as well as β-cell, but not to control cells, displaying the potential to be used as a feasible and effective treatment of T1D with lessened side effect.

The relationship between polycentric urban form and urban commuting has been widely debated in Western academic circles. However, qualitative and quantitative studies have not reached a unified conclusion. The evolution of urban form in China is remarkably different from that of developed Western countries. Many Chinese cities have begun using polycentric structures as their future development strategies. This study quantitatively measures whether polycentric urban form can improve commuting efficiency in China by using traditional statistics and emerging geographic big data. We use the polycentric index (PI) as the dependent variable and the congestion delay index (CDI) and mean traffic speed (MTS) as the main independent variables. Control variables include urban morphological space compactness (CT), number of private cars per thousand people (PC), number of buses per thousand (PB), urban road area per capita (PUA) and urban population density (PD). Regression models are employed to detect the relationships among the variables. The main research conclusions are as follows: (1) A high degree of PI results in low CDI and fast MTS, (2) a compact spatial form increases the impact of polycentricity on commuting efficiency, (3) maturity road infrastructure is an important measure to promote urban commuting under a polycentric urban form, and (4) the order of effect magnitude of polycentricity on MTS is PD &gt, PC &gt, CT &gt, PUA &gt, PB, on CDI, PD &gt, PB &gt, PUA. The results can be used in examining whether the current polycentric urban pattern planning in China&rsquo, s cities can effectively improve commuting efficiency. They also provide a reference for the healthy development of China&rsquo, s urban space and policy formulation of subsequent urban planning.

In the increasingly serious aging China, aged service is the provision of one of the most urgent and important public services to citizens, and private facilities has become an important service force with the aged service market opening in China. This study aims to explore the spatial variation in the accessibility of residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and compared the service capacity of public RACFs and private RACFs. It facilitates RACFs to be allocated rationally in the future and achieve the equalization of aged services. A village-level analysis of spatial access to public and private RACFs by the multi-catchment sizes Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (MCSG2SFCA) method was conducted through a case study in Wuhan City in Central China. The major results are as follows: (1) the accessibility of RACFs in urban areas is better than that in rural areas; (2) the public RACFs still dominate aged care services but the role of private RACFs is important as well; (3) in developed urban areas, the accessibility to private RACFs surpasses that of public ones, and the situation is opposite in rural areas; (4) the capacity of aged care services in Wuhan is not high, meanwhile there is remarkable regional disparity. The accessibility of RACFs in Wuhan is not satisfactory, and there is a significant gap between urban and rural areas. The private RACFs have significantly improved the urban capacity of aged care services, but the role in rural areas is still very weak.